THE PAINTER'S LOVE.
263
And sometimes I have dreamed I heard
A step soft as a lover's word,
And caught a perfume on the air,
And saw a shadow gliding fair,
Dim, sad as if it came to sigh
O'er thoughts, and things, and time passed by!
On one side of the temple stood
A deep and solitary wood,
Where chestnuts reared their giant length,
And mocked the fallen columns' strength;
It was the lone wood-pigeon's home,
And flocks of them would ofttimes come,
And, lighting on the temple, pour
A cooing dirge to days no more!
And by its side there was a lake
With only snow-white swans to break,
